Mia had expected a variety of reactions, the four people looking at them in pitying confusion like they lacked even just the most basic education, were not among them.

  “Why don’t you just Clear the Rifts till they stabilise?” Nikki asked in apparent confusion.

  “Yeah,” Krea agreed wholeheartedly, and even Neil and Gilbert nodded their agreement. “Destroying a rift is an atrocious waste, like burning down your house to keep warm in the winter. The rewards are multiplied, but you can’t ever delve into that rift again. It’s never worth it.”

  “Stabilise?” Mia asked with an uncertain tone. “How’s that supposed to happen?”

  “Ugh,” Krea scrunched up her face and looked to be digging up some information from the deepest depths of her memory. “Either you get someone an entire Rank, preferably two, above the rift’s to sneeze some mana at it to stabilise it, or you keep Clearing the rift until it does so by itself? Did I get that right?”

  “Yes,” Nikki said, nodding slowly. “Rifts are like the antibodies of the world, a natural reaction to chaotic ambient mana, a stopgap measure to prevent mana storms or even more unpleasant phenomena from forming. Clearing it helps the rift funnel that chaotic overflow of mana around it into rewards and monsters faster.”

  “But we have this Regional Quest that needs us to destroy all five rifts in the city,” Mia said, frowning at the four of them.

  “The System doesn’t like to keep rifts going once they have served their purpose.” Nikki shrugged. “Which is why you get Quests like that. They offer short-term gains usually, would you mind sharing what reward the quest has?”

  “We get our own Obelisk,” Mia said. “And we can’t really just ‘keep clearing’ the rifts, we are locked to level 10 and there is a rift that’s closing in on level 20 in the southern part of the city.”

  “Oh.” Was all Krea managed to get out, looking astonished for some godforsaken reason. It made Mia feel the distinct gap between their two groups and the enormous difference in their general knowledge. “Well. I guess that makes a mess of things.”

  “The quest might change if all rifts in the region stabilize,” Nikki said, though it sounded like she was just hopefully putting that idea out there without having much of a belief in it being true. “Wait, you said the rift’s closing in on level 20? Its level is increasing? At a visible rate?”

  ”Yes?” Mia said, raising an eyebrow. “We just closed a rift yesterday. It was level 10 when it appeared nearly a month ago, but it was level 15 by the time we closed it.”

  “That’s concerning,” Nikki said, her eyebrows furrowed. “And you said you had how many rifts in the city?”

  “We had five,” Mia said. “Plus one just an hour away from the city’s edge. We closed three of them.”

  “And their level is still growing that fast?” Nikki asked with what Mia thought was mounting unease.

  “Yeah?” Mia said, or rather ‘asked’.

  "I don’t know what that means," Krea said, glaring at Nikki in apprehension. “Explain.”

  “Did you listen to what I’d said at all?” Nikki’s eyebrows twitched. “Rifts are like the natural filters for calming ambient mana around them. They grow over time when they are allowed to absorb mana, but even on the Aeternum Plane, they grow at a rate of one level per year at best.”

  “Meaning?” Krea asked, her brows twitching in barely concealed irritation.

  “The ambient mana here is likely a monumental mess,” Nikki said, sounding like she was trying to explain calculus to a toddler. “By the Stars, if we close all the rifts around here, we might as well start a localized mana storm or worse.”

  “I mean,” Mia said, interrupting. “I sort of assumed that from the Realm Event’s flavour text. Also, what’s a mana storm?”

  “I suppose you have a point,” Nikki said. “I believe we’d been … severely underestimating just how messed up the ambient mana would be based off of just that Realm Event. As for mana storms? Exactly as it sounds. A storm of mana, extremely deadly for anyone below the Rank of the region's mana density.”

  “With you having two rifts at Rank 1 here,” Krea said. “That means we’d all get minced up real good if a storm formed here, so let’s not close those rifts, yeah?”

  “The System asked them to Close the rifts though,” Nikki mused aloud, tapping her lips thoughtfully. “I think the ambient mana is dense and chaotic enough that new rifts would form the moment they get all the current ones to close.”

  ”Well, if you do that, I’d really rather sleep in a goblin nest than in this city,” Krea grumbled. “Too risky. You can’t predict rift formation and trying to predict the System is borderline sacrilegious.”

  “It’s a science,” Nikki said, looking at Krea like she was a piece of dung on her boots. “Don’t tell me you’re part of those lunatics worshipping the System as some god?”

  “What’s going on?” Carmilla whispered in German, but it still caught the two bickering women’s attention before they could tear into each other further.

  “They are arguing about whether … the System is a god?” Mia answered in kind, then switched back to Imperial Common. “Whatever the case, we need an Obelisk. The level of monsters and rifts is climbing, we can’t stay Rank 0 forever and we've heard of nothing like mana storms being a problem in the few cities that’d already gotten their Obelisks the same way.”

  “That is reassuring.” Nikki nodded, sending a snide glance at Krea. “I’d have suggested following the Quest either way. The System’s Quests are known to promote growth but are never detrimental to civilisation or dimensional stability. It might not be the cleanest, least risky way, but going along with a System Quest and completing it rarely ends up with anyone worse off for it.”

  “Fuck beds then,” Krea said, crossing her arms with a huff. “We’re leaving before you do that. That’s dumb, risky and means losing a whole bunch of rifts. Fuck that.”

  “I suppose that means we’re parting ways then,” Nikki said, looking unbothered as she shrugged.

  “Suppose we are.” Krea likewise just shrugged, then glanced at Mia before grinning. “And before you get any ideas, not letting us leave in peace would be a very bad choice.”

  Mia swallowed, seeing the clear challenge in the tanned woman’s eyes and the promise in them that she’d kill every last person in the room if they stood in her way.

  The two men stood behind her, at the ready while Nikki obviously distanced herself from them with a step away from the sofa she’d sat on.

  “They want to leave,” Mia said, her voice quivering the slightest bit as she relayed their words to the rest of her group.

  “Well, they can leave-“

  Carmilla hissed, a low sound barely louder than a whisper but it crept into every single person’s ear in the room and seemed to hold a sharp crimson talon to their throats.

  It affected everyone, making every throat bob with a nervous swallow as death seemed to be one wrong move away, but it was focused on the four adventurers who all went pale and froze like a group of deer in headlights.

  “Tell them that they can leave,” Carmilla said in an icy whisper. “If they behave.”

  Mia nodded, the only one unaffected by the vampire’s hiss and did just that, “My friend here says you may leave if you behave.”

  Krea nodded jerkily, her eyes locked onto Carmilla seemingly unable to avert her gaze. Nikki, despite likely earning much less of the vampire’s ire, seemed to be the worst off as a tremble ran down her body.

  Gilbert clenched and unclenched his fist, his teeth set and his face pale. Meanwhile, Neil let out an unmanly squeal in the back.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  *****

  Mere twenty minutes later, Mia and co were standing at the edge of the city with a pair of armoured personnel carriers parked around them and soldiers keeping watch over their surroundings.

  Mia watched the backs of the three adventurers disappear behind a bend in the road and listened as their faint footsteps slowly faded into the distance.

  “I would have killed them if I were you,” Nikki said, having taken to following Mia around from the polar opposite side to Carmilla.

  “Why?” Mia asked, trying not to be too quick to judge the blue-haired woman as a cold, callous bitch, but something must have shown on her face as Nikki grimaced.

  “They will report this back to the Guild,” Nikki said carefully. “Likely alongside every detail. From the troops, you being locked to Rank 0 for the moment, the extremely dense ambient mana … to the people who took them into custody.”

  “Can’t do anything about that,” Mia said, shrugging. “I doubt they were the only ones skulking about … rather, I doubt Starhaven didn’t send out actual spies instead of just adventurers more interested in rifts than in our weaknesses.”

  “I suppose.” Nikki nodded, sounding unconvinced. Still, she seemed to at least partially agree with Mia. “What now?”

  “We have three active rifts,” Mia said. “Two that we suspect are level 10 and one level 15. One of the level 10s is already having a delving team headed its way … I think we’ll try our luck at finding the other level 10 one.”

  “Can … I come along?” Nikki asked, glancing around at all the people looking at her and Mia as they conversed in a tongue unfamiliar to them.

  “I’ll have to ask the others,” Mia said. “But I don’t think they’ll put up much resistance. Still, nothing is certain.”

  After a bit of back and forth where Mia was forced to reassure Nikki that no, they were not just going to leave her in a basement and yes; they were going to come back for her once they agreed on whether to bring her along for the delve, Mia and co were ushered back into the armoured carriers and rushed back to the current army headquarters in the city.

  Another few hours after that spent sharing everything Mia had learned and planning out how to keep themselves safe from another attempt at their life, the group was led into another apartment complex near the headquarters.

  Windows had been covered and none had a clear line of sight to any rooftops or other sniper positions either way, even the walls were double-layered brick walls, so that provided some extra protection. From regular snipers, if from not much else.

  Mia jumped right back into her training, relishing in having some clear direction in the form of her training manual and timetable. She hadn’t thought of it before, but she had been doubting whether any of her self-made exercises had any use for them.

  Now, with a system-made manual, she could focus all of her anxious energy on training without wasting any on overthinking and doubting herself.

  Gratifyingly, many of her previous exercise ideas were included in the manual, in one form or another, though the majority of them were not among the starting exercises.

  Meditation, Mana Shaping, Control, Sensitivity, Flexibility, Cognition, Memory, Endurance and runic theory were the main types of training exercises the timetable cycled between, with some outliers here and there.

  Duelling, Sensitivity and active combat training were some of the few she was unable to do without a more experienced Arcanist teacher, while some others she’d need space for. Like anything to do with Agility.

  “Breathe in … “ Helene said, then gently guided Mia to stretch in the perfect form. “Good, hold that pose for five seconds … and breathe out as you relax.”

  What was Mia doing? Well, some might call it yoga, but calling it Flexibility training inside her mind made her feel better about it.

  The book had been clear on her needing to alternate between physical, spiritual, and mental exercises. Without space and the willingness to do push-ups, that left only her flexibility to be pushed to the limit.

  Carmilla and Lina followed along next to her on the carpet and were doing annoyingly well at it. Carmilla was a bit stiff still, but that didn’t stop her from bending her body whichever way it needed to be bent or twisted. Though she did look like one of those humanoid androids mimicking human movements.

  Lina, on the other hand, was just a touch better at it than Mia. Which was annoying in its own right. Especially because while Mia felt like a pretzel during every exercise, Lina sported a blissful smile on her lips.

  Focus. Mia chastised herself, her eyes trained on her mother demonstrating the next exercise. At least Helene seemed cheerful, which chased away most of Mia’s annoyance. It had been a while since she had some specific mother-daughter time set aside for them.

  Well, she had called every week and tried to visit every other week, but that wasn’t quite like doing anything active together.

  Sighing, Mia just focused on the exercise and let her mind clear out for as long as it lasted.

  Her brain felt a bit sore after her foray into amateur enchanting. She’d thought it would be manageable, not a walk in the park, sure, but manageable.

  She had runic theory implanted in her mind, right? And she was doing quite well for herself in absorbing junior-level runic theory too, so rudimentary enchanting should have been easy.

  It was not.

  Mia felt like an intern again, barely out of a coding crash course, trying to make sense of the jumbled mess of a senior programmer’s code. Enchanting, along with artificing and alchemy — as far as she knew — were an extreme pain in the ass to learn.

  After failing to comprehend even the most basic amateur enchanting material, Mia decided to stick with spell-crafting for now as her ‘profession’.

  Apparently, having a mage-associated hobby — slash side hustle — was an important aspect of being a mage. Plus, it would let her fiddle with something on the side.

  I’ll get back to that stupid thing later. Mia decided, knowing her inability to understand enchanting would be nagging at her like a sore tooth until she got over that hurdle. It had been like that when she first got into programming too, after all. She’d spent hours just watching tutorials because not knowing how ‘pointers’ and ‘references’ worked was eating at her.

  After another thirty minutes of twisting herself into increasingly uncomfortable positions, Helene let them go. Mia didn’t get any Base Flexibility for her effort, but she did feel like every joint in her body was just a bit looser, with every single knot stretched out of her muscles.

  Her next training was supposed to be active combat and sparring, but with the lack of an instructor, she … jumped right back into her book on enchanting while grabbing her runic theory book as a reference.

  Enchanting was one of the oldest magical crafting professions, only predated by alchemy and imbuing. The latter of which was the main predecessor of enchanting, while placing an important role in it to this day.

  “What got you so absorbed?” Helene asked, and Mia snapped her gaze up with a jerk, not having noticed her mother sitting down next to her on the sofa. “You’ve had your mind up in the clouds throughout our yoga session.“

  “Just this,” Mia said, motioning at her pair of books. “I’m trying to understand how enchanting works.”

  “What’s enchanting?” Helene asked, curiously peering down at the book in Mia’s lap. She liked to do that, ask questions about whichever problem was currently haunting Mia, and she never begrudged her mother for doing so. More often than not, her questions helped her get over a hurdle, or at least got her going in the right direction.

  “It’s … a comprehensive term,” Mia said. “Enchanting is what you call making a magical artifact that uses the user as its source of power.”

  “And how do you do that?” Helene asked again.

  “Apparently,” Mia said, trying not to let her frustrations seep into her voice. “In half a dozen different ways, and those are just the basic ones included in this ‘enchanting for dummies’ book.”

  “Mhmm,” Helene hummed, glancing up at Mia and likely seeing her horrendous attempt at keeping her annoyance from showing through. “Why don’t you pick one? Just a single method that works for you. If you understand one, the rest should be easier to get, right?”

  “I guess,” Mia said, then after a moment of hesitation just shrugged and flipped to the segment dedicated to ‘physical enchanting’.

  Physical enchanting was the most rudimentary and primitive form of the craft in existence, being the technique which the first enchanters apparently used.

  “Physical enchanting,” Helene read aloud. “Why this one?”

  “Well … if tribalistic cavemen could understand it, it can’t be that hard,” Mia said, sounding entirely unconvinced by her own reasoning. “Right?”

  “It’s a good start,” Helene gave her a quick one-armed hug, which Mia took the moment to just appreciate and relish in. If just one goblin archer in their last delve was a better shot, she wouldn’t be able to feel her mother’s warmth ever again. “You got this. Take it slow. I’ll get some snacks made, alright?”

  “O-okay,” Mia said, her voice cracking a little as she chased away the haunting image of her mother with a goblin arrow sticking out of her eye. “Thanks.”

  “Anytime, sweetheart.”

  With her mother slipping away to the tiny kitchen of their impromptu safe house, Mia went back to trying to make sense of physical enchanting.

  Runes, runic scripts, mana, shapes and circuits were all crucial to enchanting, just as much as they were for spell crafting.

  Balance and symmetry much less so, but instead one had to account for the materials they used and their resonance with both the runes, the effect one wanted and the element of the mana that would fuel it all.

  Physical enchanting was the simplest because it involved physically carving runes and mana channels — or circuits, as some books referred to them — into her chosen material.

  Alright. Let’s do this step by step from the very start. Mia decided, taking a calming breath as she thought about her options. The very start. I need to set a goal, something extremely basic and achievable. My ‘hello world’ program but for enchanting … like that spike spell I’d made but for enchanting. Hmm. Maybe a glowing rock?

  No, that was not something arcane mana would be able to do without jumping through far too many hoops for her current skill level — which was barely above non-existent.

  If I had the Enchanting Lexicon, or even just the Thermomancy or Kinetomancy one, this would have been so much easier. The books say those runes lend themselves better to enchanting. Hmmm. What could I do with the runes I do have though? Maybe emit a small shield?

  With nothing better coming to mind, Mia decided to set enchanting her Arcane Shield spell into a piece of rock … or maybe a plank of wood — since that would be much easier to carve — as her first goal.